Local Boxing: Albany author Tom Schreck pens another KO

Duffy Dombrowski is an upstate New York social worker and professional sparring partner.

Since Russian heavyweight contender Boris Rusakov is looking for a southpaw, Dombroski is offered serious money to come to Las Vegas. He can even bring Al, his contrarious basset hound.

But Rusakov's world has dark corners, and Dombroski is just the guy to wander in, where he finds the Russian mafia, murder, and a fighter's chance to come home alive.

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What, you ask, does any of this have to do with Capital Region boxing?

"The Vegas Knockout" is Albany author Tom Schreck's fourth Duffy Dombroski mystery novel, and one that will likely make latecomers go back to buy the other three.

But you may already know Schreck's name, and for reasons other than his boxing-themed mysteries that include "On the Ropes," "Out Cold," and "TKO."

You might have heard it mentioned on the ESPN2 Friday Night Fights when an echoey voice announced: "Judge Tom Schreck scores the bout..." He's a World Boxing Association judge who has presided over more than a few title fights in his 14-year career.

Despite the cliché's dismissive claim, most of us are likely to be jacks-of-all-trades and masters of one, maybe even two.

But then there's Schreck. Besides his prowess as author and boxing judge, he's a black belt in karate, a pretty fair boxer (a southpaw, too, by the way...and also from upstate New York. Hmm...), a professor of psychology, the Director of Communications at Niskayuna's Wildwood School, a basset hound expert and owner (ah...), and a former social worker (of course) at an inner-city drug clinic.

If his prodigious talents have made you jealous, consider that Schreck's also a very cool and humble guy who typically dodges my attempts to write about him.

More than once, I've threatened to sneak into the Book House at Stuyvesant Plaza and write on the first page of his mysteries how things turn out in the end. I failed to mention that Tom is also one of the funniest guys on the planet. He once had me laughing so hard in the Latham Diner I had coffee flying out of my nose.

Needless to say, his humor finds its way into Dombroski's narration. ("Rusakov was this month's heavyweight sensation from Russia or Croatia or In-your-crack-istan, one of those eastern bloc countries.")

Tom's interest in boxing goes back to his college days. "In the course of getting my karate black belt, I thought I'd try it," he said. "I got beat up in about 20 seconds, so I promptly stopped wearing pajamas in the ring and switched to boxing."

He began training with local notables like Andy Schott, Rick Sweeney, and Jerrick Jones. "But by the time I was ready to do anything my age placed me in the master's division and there wasn't anybody to fight." So he travelled to Brooklyn's legendary Gleason's Gym for just one bout to say that he did it.

The result? "They don't declare winners or losers in those fights," he said, adding, "I won, but let's just say that somewhere in New York City there's an owner of a fish market who says he won."

Back to author Tom. After success as a freelance writer for publications like Westchester Magazine, The Business Review, Fightnews.com, the Albany Times Union, and a lot more, he decided to indulge an old dream and write mystery novels, "not about a James Bond hero, but about an Everyman."

"In the boxing world, most boxers have day jobs," Schreck said. "So I thought it would be fun to write about a guy who's a social worker-Robin Hood kind of character during the day and a boxer at night."

Enter Duffy Dombrowski, an average guy whose life would be a lot simpler if he didn't have a murdered client, or one with post-traumatic stress issues, or another who's a schizophrenic, crack-addicted prostitute with basset hound problems of her own, or this time a Russian sparring partner with scary friends.

And when it comes to Al, who sleeps with all four paws in the air, well, just be careful reading about him with a mouthful of coffee.